1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, electronic components using a ceramic material include capacitors, inductors, piezoelectric elements, varistors, thermistors, and the like.
Among ceramic electronic components, a multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) is an electronic component having advantages such as compactness, high capacitance, and ease of mounting.
The multilayer ceramic capacitor is a chip shaped condenser that is mounted on circuit boards of various electronic products such as display devices, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), and the like, computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and the like, and serves to charge electricity or discharge electricity.
The multilayer ceramic capacitor may include a plurality of dielectric layers, internal electrodes disposed to face each other, having the dielectric layer interposed therebetween, and external electrodes electrically connected to the internal electrodes.
Recently, as electronic products have been gradually miniaturized, microminiaturization and the implementation of super high capacitance in the multilayer ceramic capacitors used in the electronic products have been required.
Therefore, a ceramic capacitor, in which thicknesses of the dielectric layers and the internal electrodes are thin for micro-miniaturization of the product and the number of stacked dielectric layers is increased for super high capacitance, has been manufactured, but there was a limitation in increasing the capacitance of the product with only this configuration.
A multilayer ceramic capacitor having a structure, in which an overlap area between the internal electrodes is increased in order to increase capacitance of the product, and lead-out parts of the internal electrodes are exposed to the same surface of a ceramic body, for example, a lower surface of the ceramic body to thereby allow the lower surface of the capacitor to be a mounting surface, has been disclosed.
However, in the case of the multilayer ceramic capacitor using the lower surface as the mounting surface, defects due to lateral displacement in the overlap area between the internal electrodes at the time of cutting, or the like, may occur, and the inter-layered internal electrodes may be connected to each other, and thus, it is likely that the possibility of short circuits is increased.
A structure in which lead-out parts of internal electrodes are exposed to the same surface of a substrate is disclosed in the following Patent Document 1, but a structure in which first and second lead-out parts are formed to have concave-convex portions alternating with each other in an overlap area therebetween is not disclosed therein.
A structure in which edges of first and second internal electrodes have bent portions, and the internal electrodes are alternately exposed through both end surfaces of a ceramic body is disclosed in the following Patent Document 2.